“It’s impolite to tell a female you can smell her blood. I’m sure your demon mother taught you some manners.”
“She was killed after she had me. My dad didn’t want children and after giving birth was her only time of weakness.”
“That would hinder learning manners.”
“Can I get a drink?” She turned back to look at the bartender.
He looked at the demon behind her who nodded.
“Everyone deserves a last request. Especially when they are as pretty as she is. Too bad she’s feeding the enemy.” He stroked her hair and touched her neck.
“You really need lessons in manners. Don’t touch a female without her permission.”
“No problem, I’ll touch you when you’re dead.”
“And that statement just made you ickier than you already are.”
The bartender laughed until the demon caught him by the throat.
“If you kill him, I don’t get my drink and then where will you be?”
He dropped him. “Get her a drink.”
“What do you want?” His eyes sparked, but he brought them down to half-mast to hide it.
“Strawberry lemonade vodka.”
“I still like you. One drink coming up.”
He handed her a tumbler of vodka.
“Where are the strawberries or the lemonade?”
“Look around do they look like the strawberry lemonade type?”
“Nope.” She tilted her head and downed the vodka. “Well, that had a kick.” She swayed. “I’m not a big drinker I think I see two of you.”
She walked a little away from the demon. “Well come on don’t keep me waiting. I hear dying is overrated and waiting for it sucks.” Her voice was slurred.
“I really need to drink more to build up a tolerance to liquor.”
He threw a web at her which she sidestepped.
“You got to be quicker than that.”
His hand flew out never touching her, but she fell to her knees screaming. When he brought his hand up, it was bloody.
“I hate humans. You’re so ignorant of the other world. You treat us like we don’t exist, and then you let one of them do this to you.”
“Ram,” the bartender called his name.
“If you want to live stay out of it.”
He picked her up and threw her at the wall before his claws came out.
“You must have a death wish. I thought it was only humans and mid-level demons. However, it seems that all demons have the same wish.”
“I tried to warn you,” the bartender said going back to washing glasses.
“Stay still I’ll take care of you after I’m done with her.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that.” Lucca threw his symphor and nailed his hand to the wall when he tried to take her neck.
“You know what you need in here? Females, they make you nicer.” He pulled Tempest into his arms before he called his weapon back.
“Why are you trying to kill her?”
“She’s feeding the enemy.”
“What?”
“You’re as ignorant as she is.”
“Ignorant is not something I’m usually accused of being.”
“For your sake, my sake and the sake of the planet, she has to die.” He flew at Lucca.
Lucca placed her in a shield that couldn’t be broken and turned to face Ram. The fought each clawing at the other neither getting the upper hand.
“You can’t leave with her alive.” Ram was panting as he spoke.
Lucca called his symphor to him and shoved it into his heart.
“That won’t kill me.” He laughed blood dripping out of his mouth.
“It’ll make you weak, and each time I hit your heart; you'll get weaker until the last time when your body dies because your heart no longer beats.”
Lucca stabbed him again.
“You’re protecting the enemy.” He was already getting weak. “Ask her, make her tell you the truth.”
Lucca raised his hand.
“Stop. I won’t go after her, but you’re going to be sorry. She’s not what she looks like. She’s pure evil.”
He dropped to the floor waiting to see if he would die today. Lucca put away his symphor and picked up Tempest.
“If any of you even breathe around her, I promise I will kill you. He gave a subtle nod to the bartender and walked out.
“Kill me, please.” She whispered when he placed her in the car.
“No. What was he talking about Tempest?”
“I don’t know; I'm not evil. What if I’m evil Lucca, and I don’t know it? Maybe something lives inside of me, and that’s why I can’t be healed. He said something was feeding off of me. Do you know how nasty that is? Please kill me.”
Her words drifted off as she closed her eyes.
What the hell was he going to do? There was no way he was killing her, but every time they turned around there was a new part of a puzzle, and he still couldn’t get one piece to fit. Where were the corners he’d start with them?
She cried out; her face scrunched up with pain.
He placed a hand on her leg.
“Hold on menace we’ll figure this out together.” He wasn’t letting her go. It wasn’t love or kindness or the desire to keep a female safe. It was plain ole possessiveness. It almost made him feel better to know he was a possessive A hole like all of his brothers.
His cynical laughter filled the car.
Chapter Twelve
Tempest woke up to a warm cloth stroking her abdomen. She opened her eyes to find Lucca taking care of her.
“Hi.” Her voice was soft and hesitant.
“Hi.”
Her heart clenched she needed him to say more. To believe her but how could he believe she was innocent when she no longer believed it.
“I’m dying.”
“I know.” His voice was so matter of fact that she wanted to hang her head and cry, but that wasn’t who she was. Instead, she would run and die by herself.
His hand clutched her side not giving her enough room to move.
“No more running Tempest.”
He used her name; he was pissed off. This probably wasn’t good for her.
“No more going into bars alone to die by yourself. No more!” His voice never raised but the emphasis on no more ran through her body. Her desire to run was sitting on her chest, but the desire to stay was caging it.
“Lucca…”
“I’m asking the questions. Why did you go in there? It’s not the mall.”
“I had to. I felt like I was summoned, and I had to go. I knew he was going to kill me, and I didn’t want to die. It felt like my time was up, that someone was cutting the ribbon of my life, and I didn’t have a choice.
“What I don’t understand was why he didn’t kill me. There is no way that you should have gotten there in time. Lucca, I’m evil you’re going to have to kill me.”
“You’re not evil, and you’re not dying. I won’t allow it.” He lifted the cloth, and she saw small trickles of blood on it.
“It’s not a lot of blood, but before you went into that bar, it wasn’t bleeding at all.” He took a large bandage and placed it over the wound.
“I went back to the bar after I put you to bed, and I knew you would be protected from any entity coming after you. I had a long talk with the bartender.”
“Why? He’s evil too.”
“Never judge a person by where’s he’s standing. It’s not always what it looks like. In his opinion, Ram was scared to kill you. Whatever is coming after you scared him, and he was afraid if you were dead he would be next.”
“Then why was he trying to kill me?”
“If he were trying, you’d be dead menace. You weren’t in any shape to protect yourself.”
She nodded he was right. She used her strength to make sure her new friends were out of harms why.
“I’m sorry, Lucca. It feels so unfair to meet you only to know I have to leave you.”
&
nbsp; “I need to know what happened to you.”
“I told you.” Her words came to a halt as he shook his head.
“Do you remember entering my memories?”
Her eyes shined bright as her lips curled upward. “I remember. I wish we could do that again.”
“We will.” His hand went up to cup her face. Her head turned into the heat of his palm as his thumb caressed her. “I used the path and moved backward so I could slip into your mind.”
She closed her eyes even as she brought her hand up to clutch his. If this was the last time she had to enjoy the warmth and comfort of him, she was going to make him break the connection. She tried to think about what he found but shut the thoughts down. She didn’t want to know how evil she really was.
“I told you everything the day we met.”
“I know. That’s what didn’t make sense. I can’t find any deception in you. So, what did Ram mean? I went to look for the memory you told me about, but I found something else.”
She stiffened her thoughts of a happy life or even a happy right now were going up in smoke. There was no way she would feel sorry for herself.
“What did you find?”
“A black wall.”
“What?”
“There’s a wall blocking your memories, and it doesn’t have your fingerprints on it.”
“What does that mean?”
“Someone manipulated your memories without you knowing. That’s why you remember meeting someone who stuck his hand in your abdomen.”
“This is worse, isn’t it?”
He laid down next to her pulling her into his arms. “If it weren’t, your memories wouldn’t have been messed with.”
She shivered in his arms. He pulled the cover up as he pulled her to lay across his chest.
“I have to leave; you understand, right?”
He was running his hand slowly up and down her back, making her feel a little better.
“I don’t understand. Why do you want to leave?”
“Come on Lucca, the closer I am to you the easier it is for you to get hurt.”
“You’re right, but I don’t understand what makes you think if you run, that I won’t come after you.”
“You’re making my life hard.” She whispered before she snuggled against his chest and closed her eyes.
No menace you're making my life hard. He closed his eyes and mentally went through the different entities that make up who he was until he came to Bruiser. Don’t hurt her, I won’t be able to survive it.
He closed his eyes protecting the one person who was capturing his heart.
“Why are you staring at me?” Her voice was thick with sleep as she snuggled deeper into his arms.
“What makes you think I’m staring? You haven’t even opened your eyes.”
“I can feel your eyes on me.”
“You’re beautiful.”
“Un-huh there’s a pic of me in the dictionary beside beautiful.”
“Your pic gets around. Be careful I may be a jealous male.”
“That would be nice.”
He sat up on the bed with her in his arms. He stood and walked over to the mirror before placing her on her feet.
“What do you see?”
“You and me,” she whispered. The room had the first touches of light seeping in through the window.
The pinks and the yellows flowing through the room seemed to give her courage as if they were indeed magic.
“You're big compared to me.”
“I am.”
“You don’t hold it against me. I never feel less when I’m around you. Truthfully, I feel like I’m an equal.”
“You are an equal. What you and I are developing is a relationship. We each have an important part to play for it to be healthy and whole.”
She turned around to lift his tee up. Leaning in close, she placed a kiss in the center of his chest.
“Tempest, you're starting something you might not be able to finish.”
“The one you need to worry about not finishing is yourself. I’m good thanks.” She took his hand and led him back to the bed. She grabbed the hem of the cami she had on and pulled it over her head. Then she took off her bra and shimmied out of the panties she was wearing.
Turning around she placed a knee on the bed showing off her ass before she crawled on it and snuggled down.
“You’re a temptress, menace.” He pulled her to him and tickled her. Her laughter was high-pitched and sparkled in the air.
“I’m your temptress.” She smiled as she rolled back over the large bed.
“Yes, you are.”
His fate was sealed, and he knew it. She wasn’t going anywhere without him. Tomorrow, next year or a hundred years from now he would be glued to her side. If for some reason, any reason they couldn’t defeat what was coming after her, he would follow her on her next journey, but leaving her was out of the question.
“Anywhere you go Tempest; I will be there.”
“Good thing I know you’re not a stalker.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck as he came closer to kiss her.
“I like how your lips feel against mine.” She breathed out before opening her mouth to allow his tongue to invade.
He stroked her tongue making her sigh in relief. She needed his touch, it felt like she had been slowly dying while she waited for a chance to get closer. This is okay she assured herself as she pressed herself against him. The voices of the enemy kept going through her head telling her she had allowed herself to be violated.
She froze in his arms and dropped her head. What if she had done that allowed someone to violate her body or been violated without her consent? There was a sense of shame, the thought that she should have done more. Fought harder, screamed more.
“Tempest?”
“What if I allowed someone to violate me willingly or unwillingly?”
“Baby, your body is your own. You could have made a bad decision, given someone access that wasn’t worthy of you. That happens its part of being human. Could someone bigger than you, stronger than you or someone who simply manipulated you have taken advantage of you? Yes, but you survived. There are situations in life that start by surviving and then moving forward.”
She pushed away from him. It would be so easy to condemn herself, to make everything that happened her fault, even though she wasn’t sure of what happened. It could all be a lie, but that didn’t help the sudden feelings of shame she had.
It was also easy to make Lucca the scapegoat, to take every new emotion and thought out on him, something he didn’t deserve. She watched his blue eyes as they swirled with emotions matching the ones she felt. He opened his mouth to say something, but she shook her head. There was nothing to say.
Turning over she crawled over to him on the bed. She leaned over and kissed his forehead and thought of him catching her just when her strength failed her. She kissed his cheek as she thought of what she said to protect herself in those vulnerable moments and his answers that left her with a smile even as she tried to explain the mystery that was him.
Her lips settled over his. There was so much in her past that needed to be settled, but this, this feeling she had for Lucca. The way he made her heart beat and her lips smile, and her feet run towards him; this feeling was now. It was new and special, and there was no way she was going to drag it through the dirt of her past. Just this once she would enjoy the miracle she had been given.
His arms snaked around her body holding her close as she sucked on his tongue bringing her body closer to his.
“Menace, you unarm me.”
A tear fell from both eyes at his sincere words. He licked each of them taking them deep within himself to keep them safe.
“I want to make love to you, Lucca. I want to feel you deep inside of me as I try to keep you close forever.”
A deep grumble of desire came from him making her stomach jump with butterflies that spread their wings taking flight. The smile on h
er lips and the brightness of her eyes told him she meant every word.
He stared at her, his heart beating fast as he tried to lick his lips for a bit of moisture. His body tried to tremble, but he wrestled for control even as a deep emotion penetrated his brain screaming at him. He ignored it the only thing that meant anything to him at the moment was Tempest. She laid there looking so fragile, but he knew the strength she hid underneath that look. He was filled with awe that she could be so gentle and powerful at the same time.
She reached up and pulled him down to her.
He growled menace in her neck before his tongue came out to lick her pulling a moan of desire from her. His teeth skimmed her throat making her place her hands on his head to hold him there. The sensations went through her body stopping at her nipples to make them hard and needy.
He nipped and licked making her giggle between her moans. His hand began to caress down her throat going to her shoulders. She shivered at the tingles that his fingers were setting off in her body. Raising her head, she licked at his jaw before her fingers walked down his spine stopping to caress and draw random patterns before going further down.
His inhalation of breath combined with the glow in his eyes told her what she needed to know. She played with his back, drawing patterns that were making him sensitive to her touch.
He tugged on her ear with his teeth as his breath caressed the side of her face. She reached over and pulled on him bringing him over her body.
“Hi, baby.” He reached down and licked between her breasts. “I love the way your eyes light up. They are so violet and they capture me, making me incapable of running.”
“No more running, remember?” Her voice was so thick with so many emotions trying to climb out at once.
“I remember.” He brought his nose down and snuggled in the warmth by her breasts before he took one of her nipples into his mouth.
A high-pitched sound left her as he sucked. Her eyes closed as her hands caught the side of his arms with the tips of her nails digging in. Her body arched giving him greater access to her nipple.
He was taking her on a trip she couldn’t remember; nothing had ever felt as good as his mouth on her nipple. Her nipple popped out with a small sound before the next one was in his mouth. Her body thrust up even as she shook.
Lucca (The A'rouk Brothers Book 3) Page 8
